by Rhonda McBride

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sean Parnell’s office has been served a records request regarding TransCanada’s natural gas pipeline.

Bill Walker, one of Parnell’s opponents in the Republican gubernatorial primary, submitted a letter Thursday at the governor’s office in Anchorage, requesting documents related to TransCanada’s open season negotiations, which began on April 30.

During the three-month period, producers are trying to strike deals with TransCanada to ship their gas through the company’s proposed pipeline.

Although the open season concludes July 31, the Parnell administration does not plan to release information until next year when the process ends.

Walker says a lot of state money has been invested in the project, so the public has a right to know immediately whether the open season is a success or a failure.

“Some may not want to have that information available before the election — I think that’s wrong,” Walker said. “Alaskans need to know how their money was spent, and what the results of the 100-plus million dollars was spent on.”

“There is a commercial interest, a proprietary interest, that TransCanada and its partners have with regard to their own commercial position,” said Joe Balash, a special assistant to the governor on the pipeline. “Broadcasting where they are in the middle of a negotiation isn’t a commercially reasonable place to be.”

The Parnell administration says that under the provisions of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, TransCanada has certain protections, including one that restricts the state from releasing proprietary information.

Walker also wants records on Parnell’s veto of Senate Bill 305, which would have decoupled oil and gas taxes to create separate taxation structures.

Parnell said when he vetoed the bill that it was premature to take up oil and gas taxes, and that it would be better to address them after the open season process concludes.

The competing Denali pipeline project is also conducting an open season this year, but TransCanada was awarded the state’s license for a pipeline to the Lower 48.

Producers are expected to place bids with conditions on them, so negotiations are likely to continue after the open season closes.

AGIA opponents, including Walker, have called the process a sham — and say that some of the bids made on the TransCanada project may have too many conditions to make a gas line feasible.

Walker, as well as Parnell’s other opponents question the timing. They claim the public won’t know if TransCanada’s open season was a failure until after the election.

Attorney General Dan Sullivan will review Walker’s Freedom of Information Act request to determine what the state can legally make public.

Read story on KTUU’s website.